Ryan Wedding ceremony, the previous Olympic snowboarder who was wished by the FBI for allegedly operating a violent transnational drug trafficking group, has been arrested, the Justice Division introduced on Friday.
Wedding ceremony, 44, was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Needed Fugitives record in March.
“At my path, @FBI brokers have apprehended one more member of the FBI’s Prime Ten Most Needed Checklist: Ryan Wedding ceremony, the onetime Olympian snowboarder-turned alleged violent cocaine kingpin,” Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi mentioned in a submit on X. “Wedding ceremony was flown to america the place he’ll face justice.”
Wedding ceremony was taken into custody in Mexico on Thursday night time, FBI Director Kash Patel mentioned in his personal X submit.
Patel had in contrast Wedding ceremony to notorious drug kingpins Pablo Escobar and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Particulars surrounding his arrest are anticipated to be introduced at a information convention in California later Friday morning.
A poster indicating the seize of fugitive Ryan Wedding ceremony.
(FBI)
Based on the FBI, Wedding ceremony’s drug trafficking community usually shipped tons of of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, by Mexico and Southern California, to Canada and places in america. Wedding ceremony was additionally accused of orchestrating a number of murders as a part of these drug crimes.
Wedding ceremony, whose aliases embody “El Jefe,” “Big” and “Public Enemy,” represented his residence nation, Canada, throughout the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah. He competed within the parallel big slalom and completed in twenty fourth place.
“Wedding ceremony went from shredding powder on the slopes on the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada,” Akil Davis, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles subject workplace, mentioned in a press release when he was added to essentially the most wished record. “The alleged murders of his rivals make Wedding ceremony a really harmful man.”
The U.S. State Division’s Bureau of Worldwide Narcotics and Regulation Enforcement Affairs initially provided a $10 million reward for data that would result in Wedding ceremony’s seize. That award was raised to $15 million in November.
U.S. regulation enforcement officers had mentioned that they believed Wedding ceremony was dwelling in Mexico, the place he was below the safety of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
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